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A debate over tipping culture has erupted across the Indonesian resort island of Bali and beyond, triggered by a politician’s unfavourable comparison of domestic and foreign tourists. In a social media video, I Gusti Arya Wedakarna urged domestic tourists to “normalise giving tips in touristy places”, which he said was part of the island’s “ethics”. “Perhaps that’s the psychological reason why Balinese people are more excited about serving foreigners,” said Wedakarna, an Indonesian Regional...

Some of those detained accused security forces of beating them during an intense crackdown on demonstrations in India’s capital over the weekend. Police have said they followed the law.

When Daniela Cruz arrived in Singapore last week, hazy skies obscured the picture-perfect sights she had seen on social media, offering a different view of the city state from the one she had expected. The 27-year-old bank associate had travelled from Australia for the Formula One Singapore Grand Prix, but the smoky weather dampened her experience. “The buildings we saw on social media were covered in haze, and it made conditions extremely hot and humid,” she said. The haze blanketing...

The Taliban government has intensified its crackdown on the press in recent months but had so far targeted Afghan news outlets.

Two leaders of India’s youth-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) were remanded in custody for five days on Wednesday, as police ratcheted up efforts to clamp down on anti-election commission protests. CJP activists and opposition parties have defied a security crackdown to demand the resignation of India’s chief election commissioner, accusing the poll body of manipulating voter rolls to benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party. The commission, which oversees voting in the world’s most...

China’s integrated circuit (IC) exports surged 136 per cent year on year in September to US$45 billion, exceeding the 108 per cent growth rate in the first nine months of the year in a sign of the country’s rising influence in the global semiconductor supply chain. In September, China exported 32.7 billion units of ICs, according to customs data released on Wednesday, a 1 per cent year-on-year increase in volume. But higher prices fuelled the 136 per cent jump in value amid a memory chip...

A Malaysian court on Wednesday rejected Najib Razak’s bid to suspend his 15-year jail sentence in the 1MDB scandal pending the jailed former prime minister’s appeals, ruling that his health and other grounds did not justify a stay. The decision means his sentence is set to begin after his current prison term ends in August 2028. Najib, 73, received a conditional royal pardon last month allowing him to serve that separate sentence in the SRC International case at home, but he must first pay a 50...

Rescuers dragged 13 dead children out of India’s Ganges River after an overloaded boat capsized en route to a Hindu festival, officials said on Wednesday, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressing grief over the “deeply painful” tragedy. The boat overturned late on Tuesday in Vaishali district in eastern Bihar state, with locals rushing to pull people out of the water in the dark using mobile phones to find the bodies. “It was dark when we suddenly heard children screaming and crying for help...

Japan’s prime minister said on Wednesday she probably spent “three or four more hours” than her male predecessors tackling household duties on top of her already packed daily schedule. “In the morning, I bathe, fix breakfast and then wash dishes, not to mention apply make-up,” Sanae Takaichi, elected last year as Japan’s first woman prime minister, told parliament. “I feel like I’m spending three or four more hours than male prime ministers doing these things.” A self-described workaholic,...

A long-awaited code of conduct (COC) for the South China Sea risks becoming a toothless agreement, analysts have warned, as Beijing and Southeast Asian nations scramble to hammer out a deal by the end of 2026. More than three decades since it was mooted, the proposed pact has remained gridlocked over how to balance competing territorial claims among China and four rival claimant states – Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and the Philippines. Maritime experts speaking at a conference in Kuala Lumpur this...

Asian countries must remind themselves about what happened during the region’s financial crisis in the late 1990s and guard against a recurrence of such shocks, the head of the Philippine central bank said ‌on Wednesday. Before the Asian financial crisis started in 1997, regional economies saw huge capital inflows that prompted the World Bank to describe it as the “East Asian miracle”, Eli Remolona, governor of the central bank, said in an International Monetary Fund panel on the outlook for the...

The film, “The Assassin(s),” revisits a 1974 shooting that has spawned J.F.K.-style conspiracy theories, exposing divides over the country’s history.